“Second door down,” she said, with that same smile on her face and that same voice.

The door didn’t say nothing. It was just a blank door, and it was locked. I opened it, and all it was was a bathroom. I couldn’t figure why they kept it locked unless they thought somebody was going to steal a free pee or something. But I felt good when I went inside. I went to the toilet; then I washed my hands and put on some of the after-shave lotion they had sitting on the sink and checked myself out in the mirror. Not bad.

I went in, and Cal was still inside with Mr. O’Donnel. I gave Miss Smile the key back, and she gave me another smile. A few minutes later Cal came out.

He didn’t say nothing to me. He just started out the door, and I had to hustle to catch up with him. All the way down on the elevator he looked like he didn’t even know me.

“He say you couldn’t coach?” I asked.

“No,” Cal said. “He said you couldn’t play!”

The sun was really bright when we hit the street. I didn’t know where we were going. Here I had asked Cal to come because I needed him to come and because I thought maybe, if he went, things could work out. Then I ask him what went on with O’Donnel, and he gives me this crappy answer. We went to the train station, and he told me to go on up to the center and wait for him there.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because I got some thinking to do and some phone calls to make,” Cal said. “Get the guys together. We got a game at five o’clock tonight.”

“We ain’t playing until tomorrow,” I said.

“We’re playing,” Cal said, “tonight.”

I still didn’t know what was going on. Cal acted like he was going to coach. I couldn’t figure it.

I went uptown and called around until I got everybody. I told them we had a game tonight. They were as surprised as I was. But by one o’clock the word was all over the neighborhood. The television company had called the center. Not only were we going to play that night, but we were going to be on television.

“This is how it goes,” Cal said as we sat in the center. “There was supposed to be two more games for everybody to determine who the two best teams were, and then they were supposed to play for the championship next Saturday afternoon. But what happened was that the television network dropped a movie, and they’re going to run the game on television. So they wanted to make it a championship game, and they picked the two best teams. At least, that’s what they said.”

“Us and who?” Ox asked.

“Us and Manhattan,” Cal said. “What I think it is, is that they want to get Tomkins on television because it’s going to look good for the tournament to get a good white player on television.”